🧐 Question and Argument

How does giving noncitizen residents the right to vote in local elections affect their decision to become citizens? Contrary to the common cost–benefit view that enfranchisement reduces naturalization by removing a key incentive, the argument tested here is that early access to local suffrage can encourage formal membership by fostering political ties and identification with the destination state.

🗳️ Spain’s 2011 Municipal Elections as a Natural Variation

• Uses origin-specific variation in access to Spain’s 2011 municipal elections to estimate the causal effect of non‑EU suffrage on naturalization.
• Treats differential eligibility across origin groups as a source of exogenous variation in early local voting rights.

🌍 EU-Wide Comparison Using OECD Bilateral Naturalization Data (2007–2014)

• Extends the analysis beyond Spain with cross‑national tests using bilateral OECD naturalization counts.
• Covers 21 EU destination countries and 131 non‑EU origin countries for the years 2007–2014.

📈 Key Findings

• Local voting rights for noncitizens increase rates of formal citizenship acquisition across both the Spain case and the EU-wide analyses.
• These positive effects are specific to local suffrage: similar patterns do not appear for other forms of immigrant political rights.
• Access to local voting correlates with increased immigrant identification with the destination state, suggesting a mechanism linking enfranchisement to naturalization.

💡 Why It Matters

• The results challenge simple cost–benefit models that predict enfranchisement reduces naturalization by removing a privilege of citizenship.
• Instead, early local suffrage appears to reinforce state membership by strengthening political attachment and motivating formal naturalization, with implications for debates on immigrant integration and citizenship policy.